Prior to October’s trick-or-treats, November’s turkey extravaganza and December’s visions of lollipops, are flu shots.
Getting the influenza vaccine won’t guarantee illness-free holidays, but it will likely take the possibility of a particularly nasty ailment off the table.
Tracking of flu outbreaks for the 2008-2009 season began Sept. 28, with Monday being the first day for reporting cases, said Angi Davis, nurse epidemiologist with the Bell County Public Health District.
“There have been no lab-confirmed cases in Bell County reported for this last week and it’s too early to make any predictions about the season,” she said.
It is time for people to get their flu shots and the more people who get the vaccine, the fewer expected cases, Davis said.
The flu vaccine protects against three main flu strains that research indicates will cause the most illness during the flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control. This year’s influenza vaccine contains three new influenza strains - A/Brisbane/59/2007, A/Brisbane/10/2007 and B/Florida/4/2006.
Influenza is a fairly severe viral respiratory illness, said Dr. Michael Reis, Scott & White family practice physician.
Fever, headaches and body aches are some of the symptoms and those unfortunate enough to get it will feel rotten for a long time, he said.
One main concern during the flu season is the incidence of pneumonia following the flu among the elderly, the very young and those who have chronic illnesses.
“There’s an increased risk of complications and even death among the elderly,” Reis said.
Individuals recommended for vaccination are:
People over age 50.
Those with chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease or emphysema.
People living in long-term care facilities.
Others who should get flu shots include those who are at high risk of getting exposed to the flu:
Health care workers.
Household contacts of people who are at high risk for complications.
Household contacts and caregivers of children six months or younger.
Pregnant women should get the flu shot as well as children, age six months to 19 years.
“Basically everybody should get the shot,” Reis said. “It’s a bad bug and nobody wants to get the flu.”
Reis said he has told medical students the virus can be diagnosed by watching the patient as they are being brought down the hallway.
“The way they hold their head … they shuffle, they just feel terrible,” he said.
One theory on how the flu moves through the population is that children act as a reservoir for the bug, bringing it home from school and infecting their families, Reis said.
Researchers at the Scott & White Clinic and Baylor College of Medicine began vaccinating Temple/Belton-area school children against the flu in September.
The local medical center is a participant of a groundbreaking study conducted since 1998 that could vaccinate as many as 23,000 students this year.
Vaccines for Influenza Prevention in Schools campaign offers flu immunizations at no charge to students ages 4 and up, at their schools. Most children will receive FluMist, the nasal spray vaccine, instead of a flu shot in the arm.
“The results reported from previous years of this community-based study and other school-based studies have already led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make a new recommendation in 2008 that all school-age children get vaccinated against influenza,” said Dr. Manjusha Gaglani, the local principal investigator of the study and associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Scott & White.
For those who are convinced the flu shot will give them flu, it’s just not possible, Reis said. The shot is made up of killed viruses.
“It can give you mild flu-like symptoms - low-grade fever, soreness in the arm - but it can’t make you sick,” he said.
The nasal vaccine, which can be given to healthy individuals age two to 49, is a live, but weakened virus, Reis said.
“It’s live enough to elicit a real antibody response, but not live enough to cause a true case of the flu,” he said.
